(Memphis) British Open champion Cameron Smith saw his attempt to climb to the top of the world stage become a little tougher on Sunday before the start of his final round at the St. Jude Championship.
Posted yesterday at 1:43 p.m.
The PGA assessed Smith a two-stroke penalty because his ball was still touching the red boundary line of the hazard when he moved his ball and took a penalty stroke at the par-3 fourth hole during the third round, Saturday.
Smith had turned in a 67 to come within two shots of the lead. A victory would allow him to climb to first place in the world rankings. Under the penalty, his score was adjusted to 69 and he started the final round four shots off the lead.
The incident comes amid rumors that Smith will play on the Saudi-backed LIV Tour after the FedEx Cup qualifiers. Smith declined to comment on the rumours.
PGA Referee-in-Chief Gary Young said Smith was told the judges had taken a look at the replays. According to the rules, what a player says they saw has precedent on television zoom shots. Smith told Young the ball absolutely hit the line.
It is presumed that Smith did not know that when putting his ball in play in a penalty box, the whole ball must be in play and must not touch the line even a little.
Young explained that while the situation was monitored live, officials were comfortable with the decision to let Smith play at the time of the incident.
However, a referee working at the tournament decided to take a second look at the situation on Saturday night and deemed the situation worth reviewing.
They finally caught up with Smith when he arrived for his warm-up and briefed him on the situation. They had no choice but to penalize him.
“I thought it would be a situation where I was going to ask Cam and he would tell me he was sure the ball was out of the penalty box,” Young said. But when I asked him, he sadly told me he was sure she was hitting the line. In these circumstances, we could not do otherwise. »